Business media
A business editor here wants to know what a story means for the UAE: capital, jobs, a sector, a policy. A success somewhere else, retold, is rarely enough.
Public relations in the UAE | Licensed in Dubai
Everyone here has an announcement.
New offices, new towers, new partnerships, new arrivals. The UAE produces more news than its newsrooms could ever cover. What editors here are short of is a reason to choose one story over the many beside it: a point of view, a figure nobody else has, an hour with the person in charge.
Bannerton is a public relations and strategic communications consultancy with a licensed company and an office in Dubai. We work with businesses established in the Emirates, with regional companies, and with international ones arriving for the first time.
Earned and paid
Coverage you earn, and coverage you buy.
There are two ways to appear in the media here, and they do different jobs.
Earned
Earned coverage is editorial. A journalist or producer decides whether a story is worth their audience's time, and how to tell it. Nobody can promise it, which is part of why it is valued.
Paid
Paid visibility is commercial. Sponsored content, advertorial and paid distribution are arranged for a fee and should be identified as such. They offer control over the message and the timing, and for some objectives they are the right tool.
It helps to know which you are buying. Our work is earning editorial coverage. Where paid activity would support it, we will say so, explain what it can and cannot do, and keep the two clearly identified.
The market
The UAE is not shorthand for the Gulf.
It is tempting to treat Dubai as a loudspeaker for the whole region. It is better understood as one market with several audiences, sitting among other markets that each have their own.
Trade and lifestyle media
Most sectors have their own titles, read closely by the people in them, and they want substance. So do the lifestyle magazines. The Skin Diary reached Vogue Arabia because its founder, a consultant dermatologist, had something useful to say on a subject the magazine was already covering.
Broadcast
A business programme wants a guest who can talk about more than their own company. In her first week in Dubai, Croud's EMEA chief executive went on Dubai Eye 103.8's Business Breakfast to discuss why independent agencies are choosing the city. That is a subject, not a sales pitch.
Arabic media
Arabic titles and broadcasters reach Emirati and wider Arab audiences that English media do not, and a story for those readers has to be written for them, not translated as an afterthought. Before establishing Bannerton in the UAE, our founder worked at Seven Media on campaigns including LAMMAH AL BAHR in Abu Dhabi, which the agency launched in English and Arabic. When a story needs Arabic, we plan for it from the start.
And beyond the UAE
Saudi Arabia is its own market, with its own media. Al Arabiya moved its headquarters from Dubai to Riyadh in 2025, and Asharq Bloomberg followed in 2026. A Saudi audience wants a Saudi story, and we treat the two markets separately.
Who we work with
Three kinds of client.
Businesses established in the UAE
Companies that have been here for years and are better known to their customers than to the market. For Migrate Group in Dubai, we built the chief executive's profile around a single argument about the region's independent agencies. In three months he was interviewed by Communicate, wrote for Campaign Middle East and went live on business radio.
Regional companies
Gulf and Middle East businesses for whom the UAE is home or headquarters, and who need to be understood in the Emirates as well as across the region, with each market addressed in its own right.
International companies entering the Emirates
Arriving is not news in itself. When the French marketing group Heroiks opened in Dubai, we tested the story with a senior business broadcaster before the launch, and took the announcement first to the marketing and business press.
Migrate Group case studyHeroiks case studyCommunications for companies entering the UAE
What we do here
Four services, as they apply in the Emirates.
Media relations and PR campaigns
Launches, openings and announcements written for UAE desks and timed for the working week here, which has its own rhythm in Ramadan and through the summer.
Strategic communications
Positioning before an entry or an expansion: what the company wants the UAE to know about it, who should hear it first and what should wait. Media and advertising are regulated here, and a tone that works in London, Dublin or Paris does not always work in Dubai. It is cheaper to find that out before the announcement.
Reputation and thought leadership
This market is full of capable companies saying similar things. A leader with a clear argument, made consistently in the business and trade press, is noticed.
Crisis and issues communications
Preparation and advice, handled in confidence. An issue here can involve regulators, partners and government relationships as much as the media, and we plan for all of them.
PR and communicationsStrategic communications in the UAEReputation management in DubaiCrisis communications in Dubai
Bannerton in the UAE
Here in our own right.
Bannerton was established in Ireland in 2010, and the UAE is our second home market. We operate here as Bannerton L.L.C-FZ, a company licensed in Dubai, with an office in the city. Our work has been in marketing and media, technology, professional services, beauty and healthcare, property, events and energy, in Dubai and in Abu Dhabi.
Media and marketingHeroiksIn Dubai, an opening needs a bigger story.Read the case studyMedia and marketingCroudA week in Dubai, and a seat in the studio.Read the case studyProfessional servicesMigrate GroupOne idea, carried across the regional press.Read the case study
Some of our UAE clients also have business in Ireland, or are on their way there. For those companies we can work at both ends.
What is the story behind yours?
Tell us what is planned: an opening, an expansion, a leader who should be better known, or a position you want to hold in this market. We will tell you what we think the story is, and who here would want it.